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In robotech 1st edition they had list of encounters - roll for every six hours or what have you and the list was broke down by what your players might run into. Is there such a table for rifts some where's?

The old sourcebook 1 had some random encounter tables, but it's very much out of date and obsolete.

The Rifts G.M. screen has some I believe but they are also old and possibly obsolete.

Sorry but in my opinion generic encounter lists are for lazy GMs. It is a way for them to add filler when they can't be bothered to create encounters or plot lines. Custom made random encounters can add uncertainty to the game but it requires that the GM create 10 to 20 encounters/events and a table to randomize them.

SpiritInterface wrote:Sorry but in my opinion generic encounter lists are for lazy GMs. It is a way for them to add filler when they can't be bothered to create encounters or plot lines. Custom made random encounters can add uncertainty to the game but it requires that the GM create 10 to 20 encounters/events and a table to randomize them.

I'm sorry but I really disagree. I use to use the old random encounter tables in Robotech and Rifts and it's not lazy. Random encounters are a way to keep things fresh for the players and GM and force the GM to deviate from his prepared scenario. Rifts is supposed to be frightening and most importantly unpredictable. This is especially true when traveling in the wilderness. Besides, a good GM can take a random encounter and weave it into the scenario.

Warshield73 wrote:

SpiritInterface wrote:Sorry but in my opinion generic encounter lists are for lazy GMs. It is a way for them to add filler when they can't be bothered to create encounters or plot lines. Custom made random encounters can add uncertainty to the game but it requires that the GM create 10 to 20 encounters/events and a table to randomize them.

I'm sorry but I really disagree. I use to use the old random encounter tables in Robotech and Rifts and it's not lazy. Random encounters are a way to keep things fresh for the players and GM and force the GM to deviate from his prepared scenario. Rifts is supposed to be frightening and most importantly unpredictable. This is especially true when traveling in the wilderness. Besides, a good GM can take a random encounter and weave it into the scenario.

Most of my experience comes from my old AD&D days, where we would watch the GM spend up to an hour rolling up a random encounter that took 30 to 50 minutes to fight out.

Warshield73 wrote:

SpiritInterface wrote:Sorry but in my opinion generic encounter lists are for lazy GMs. It is a way for them to add filler when they can't be bothered to create encounters or plot lines. Custom made random encounters can add uncertainty to the game but it requires that the GM create 10 to 20 encounters/events and a table to randomize them.

I'm sorry but I really disagree. I use to use the old random encounter tables in Robotech and Rifts and it's not lazy. Random encounters are a way to keep things fresh for the players and GM and force the GM to deviate from his prepared scenario. Rifts is supposed to be frightening and most importantly unpredictable. This is especially true when traveling in the wilderness. Besides, a good GM can take a random encounter and weave it into the scenario.

Definitely agree. Whenever I gear up my PF game again, I'm going to be hitting the random roll table in that. I did a multiple game scenario based off of 101%.

SpiritInterface wrote:Most of my experience comes from my old AD&D days, where we would watch the GM spend up to an hour rolling up a random encounter that took 30 to 50 minutes to fight out.

Actually I was thinking about this today during lunch and I have to say it REALLY depends on how the GM uses it and on how well GM can work on his feet.

I remember a buddy of mine that use to run a group of us through the old West End Star Wars game, all he ever used were the modules and those could get downright painful.

I also want to say that while games like Rifts, Chaos Earth, Nightbane and even certain periods of Robotech do benefit from random encounters some games just don't and random encounter tables should never be a substitute for GM prep.

As for the original topic, the Rifts® Adventure Guide has lots of great tables and charts for Rifts, and it is still reasonable up to date.

I had (and am rebuilding) a full selection of prepared pages (MDC, weapons etc) for PAs, Bots, large critters etc in North America for Rifts so random encounters while traveling were fairly simple to do. roll up a CS patrol? ok take out the pages for the appropriate baddies.

If you're doing a lot of traveling (and in Kermit's game that's a real factor lol) then randomness is the spice of life

Mechghost wrote:I had (and am rebuilding) a full selection of prepared pages (MDC, weapons etc) for PAs, Bots, large critters etc in North America for Rifts so random encounters while traveling were fairly simple to do. roll up a CS patrol? ok take out the pages for the appropriate baddies.

If you're doing a lot of traveling (and in Kermit's game that's a real factor lol) then randomness is the spice of life

Impressive. My players are lucky if I work out more than the first half of a plot (why bother if the second half is always going to be thrown out due to PC actions). My random tables are single sentences that I got from various sources that I expand upon on the fly as needed.

I have to say that I have been lucky in that the Group I game with has GMs that often create and insert random encounters appropriate to the situation (Who, What, Where). Now they may(often do) recycle unused random encounters.

We got burned out on the innumerable book of random encounters, monsters, traps that were published, they were as bad as all of the pre-made dungeons/adventures.

This maybe a side effect of over 30 years of gaming allot of it with the same group of players. The Versatility and multiple genres is what drew us to Palladium games and why we stayed with it as we phased out other systems over the years.

Traveling in my game be a fact. Could be covering 5 or 300 miles in a day.... Depending on various factors . Did not know pally created a adventure book. Have to get a copy of that.

I like random encounters at times, because every so often the rolls challenge your group and they suddenly have a real fight on their hands. The longer it goes on, the more my brain starts making details about their opponent, the better they become until eventually they and their motivations are fleshed out. Then they either die or flee (or beat the PC's in some cases) and it shifts the whole adventure into something more.

Or i just make the random encounter an extension of the game as i planned it. Sometimes the badguy hires locals to kill the PC's (when it's that kind of game) so as to conceal his involvment.